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WIndows 7: No Administrator Rights and C:\ is not accessible

Question

help... I cannot access my local hard drive after the system has booted and I have logged in. I get the following error:
"C:\ is not accessible
Access is denied."
I then navigated to the Control Panel, Administratives Tools, Computer management and got the following network error:
"Windows cannot access C:\Windows\system32\compmgmt.msc"
Detail error code: 0x800704b3
I clicked the Diagnose tab and got the following error:
"An error occurred while troubleshooting.
A problem is preventing the troubleshooter from starting."
I clicked "View error details" and got the following response:
Package ID: Unknown
Path: C:\Windows\diagnostics\system\networking
Error code: 0x80070005
Source: Engine
User:
Context: Restricted
It appears that I have lost all administratives rights for my login. Can you help me regain access to my local hard drive and administrative rights.
thanks,
Ruben

6. After the above commands are finished, please close the Notepad window. Choose Save when you are prompted to save the file. Type "reset.bat" as the file name and choose Desktop from the left panel as the save location.

7. Refer to the Desktop and right click the reset.bat file, then choose "Run as administrator."

8. You will see a DOS-like window processing.

NOTE: It may take several minutes. When it is finished, you will be prompted with the message: "Finished, press any key to continue".

I am trying things as i post this, so sorry if it seems a little bit wierd to read.

Same thing just happened to me. Got the message, "C:\ is not accessible" Was messing around with homegroups, restarted and bam. No c:\ access.

Arthur, can't do a whole lot of the things in that list.

First off, can't download the file. Anywhere you try and save it, it says "C:\ is unaccessible" even on other drives.

Secondly, install shield can't be accessed as well as everything else in control panel. Surprised control panel even worked. Can't even browse C:\. The only things i can browse on C:\ are My Documents. Nothing can be run.

Can't make a notepad file. Can't run it.

Just booted into safe mode. C:\ has no permissions set of course, so i added "Everyone" back into it. A few things worked, but most were still blocked (anything relating to My Documents (things associated with Homegroups)), but i was able to access C:\ again after this.

I will try what you have said now that i have a small amount of permissions again.

Am back in Windows now. Everything seems as normal. Have not been blocked by any permissions. Things seem fixed, but i doubt it because i saw how many things were blocked when i readded permissions...

There should be several system components that are protected. We could not get the ownership of these components in any conditions.

Another method could help us to take ownership. You may try it to take ownership of other components. Please boot with the Windows 7 DVD, select to repair the system. Then use the takeown command in Command Prompt.

I couldn't install the SubInACL routine, because the system couldn't access the disk to run the installer. If I reboot in 'Safe' Mode, I still have NO direct access to the disk, and can't change the security settings. However, I can run Regedit, so some hope that I can hack the registry enough to be able to save some files before I have to reinstall Widows 7. Is there some registry settings I can edit to at least access my files long enough to save them offline??

This is a MAJOR Problem - completely corrupting the disk access to the point that you have to reformat and start from scratch, losing EVERYTHING!! It appears that this problem has been Known for at least a Month, yet No Warning from MICROSOFT, or 'patch' to keep Homegroups from botching the disk. I know this is 'beta', but you guys have gone into production, and No Warning, Fix or something to keep this from happening AGAIN?!?! Come On, Redmond, you could have at least Warned us - you have our emails when we signed up!!

I completely loved 7, even though I hated Vista - until now. Since I have been badly burned, I'm much more reluctant to trust 7 again!

Thank you! I've been trying to fix this problem for a few days now, and this seemed to work. After clicking OK to Authenticated Users, dont forget to check the box that allows Full Control. I also added our user name/Administrator to that permission list,
and the hard drive unlocked. Thanks again!

I am having the same issues as everyone else as far as being an Administrator being denied access to my own files.

I was running XP-Pro 2002 and upgraded to Windows 7-Premium. I thought I read everything on the subject before downloading and installing. I used the Windows BackUp Software, did the compatibility check and so on and so forth.

I followed your instructions and it took forever to configure whatever it was doing. To make a long story short I am still denied access to my Documents and Settings and also to my Downloads...H E L L O Microsoft - what the hell are you thinking.

Then I came back and followed the instructions from Captain Awesome and again whiz-burp-bubble and so on. It accepted all the authorization checks and when I reloaded and tried out my Documents and Settings, again I was denied access although every
check mark is in place.

After doing Arthur's well written steps, unfortunately both the downloaded file and the notepad script files on my desktop were "locked" somehow (they became "C;\ is not accessible") and I was unable to delete them or drag them to the Recycle Bin.

If anyone has that same problem, remember to reboot your computer and go into Safemode and there you can easily delete those 2 files.

Ouch: when I followed Geof's steps, I encountered this error "Error Applying Security" An error occurred whilte applying security information to C:\hiberfil.sys The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
Continue or Cancel

I tried Continue... but Windows Security popped up and started listing files then stopped with the same error at C:\pagefile.sys

and many repeated similar errors with the screen showing "Changing ownership of..."

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